If Schilling does jump into the race, though, he seems destined to lose the sports-media perch that he's been using — to masterful effect — to drum up interest in his possible candidacy. The problem, from Schilling's point of view, is the Federal Communications Commission–enforced equal-time rule (ETR), which requires broadcast stations to give all declared candidates for a particular office an equal opportunity to use their airwaves — even if, as in this case, one of those candidates happens to be a paid employee. (If, for example, John Dennis and Gerry Callahan gave Candidate Schilling X number of minutes to talk up his candidacy — and hammer his rivals — on their hugely successful morning show, WEEI-AM would need to give Schilling's opponents a comparable amount of time, at a comparably fertile hour of the day, to do the same.)

While the principle is simple, applying the ETR can be trickier than you'd think. Before the December 8 Senate primary, for example, a Schilling appearance on WEEI-AM would only have implications for his fellow independent candidates, since the Democratic and Republican candidates for the general election still wouldn't have been selected. But after the primary, five minutes for Schilling would mean five minutes for the Republican nominee, and the Democrat, and every other independent — including any write-in candidates — who was targeting Kennedy's seat.

A station spokesman declined comment on the implications of Schilling's situation last week. But if he becomes a candidate, the attendant hassle would likely convince WEEI-AM's management to nix Schilling's regular guest spots, at least for the duration of the campaign. And while Schilling's weei.com blog falls outside of FCC jurisdiction — the commission only regulates the broadcast airwaves, not the Internet — the symbiotic relationship between WEEI-AM and weei.com might lead management to ask Schilling to steer clear of politics on 38 Pitches, or even to take a full sabbatical from blogging.

There is, it should be noted, one scenario in which Schilling might be able to stay on WEEI-AM if he runs. The ETR offers a handful of exemptions, including one for "news interview" programs, which aren't required to give equal time to all candidates. The "news interview" exemption is primarily useful to buttoned-down shows like NBC's Meet the Press and CBS's Face the Nation. In 2003, though, the Howard Stern Show (!) got an exemption before interviewing Arnold Schwarzenegger, who at the time was one of a hundred-plus candidates for governor of California.

But here's the catch. In his declaratory ruling in that case, the FCC's W. Kenneth Ferree cited, among other things, a conviction that politicians appearing on the Howard Stern Show "are not selected to advance their candidacies." WEEI-AM, however, already seems intent on propping up Schilling's embryonic campaign. Here's Callahan on Schilling's prospects last week: "The seven or eight dwarfs who run on the Democratic side will cannibalize each other. They'll eat each other alive. And then Schilling will just pick at the leftovers in the general election. I'm looking forward to it." Um, that should make the FCC's job easier.

Capuano for Senate After a telescoped campaign, Massachusetts Democrats go to the polls Tuesday to choose a successor to a legend, Ted Kennedy.

Giant shadow One striking aspect of the Kennedy tributes was the focus on the help he and his office provided for ordinary individuals in Massachusetts — all those things that fall under the category of "constituent services."

Taking sides The stakes are high in the battle for Massachusetts’s first new US senatorship in a quarter-century.

Hoover? Damn! It doesn't matter how many negative ads are broadcast or how many moose are slain on the tundra, candidates and their actions don't transform our politics nearly as much as outside events and circumstances do.

Coakley for Senate When Massachusetts voters go to the polls on Tuesday to elect a successor to the late Senator Edward Kennedy, they face a choice that is as clear as the difference between black and white.

How Brown won As the Massachusetts US Senate election unfolded yesterday, all that the pols and pundits wanted to talk about was how Martha Coakley managed to lose the race. And there is plenty there to dissect. But there is another part of the story, and that is how Scott Brown managed to win it.

The X factor Martha Coakley should be plenty thankful for the holiday weekend. The polls suggest that, if nothing significant changes between now and the December 8 primary, she should handily claim the Democratic nomination for US Senate.

Dictator McCain? The only thing standing in the way of Republican John McCain assuming the powers and prerogatives of a dictator should he be elected president is the vote of a single Supreme Court justice.

The Big Ligotti Like his homeboy Scott Brown, Boston's elephant in the room is poised to make noise beyond Massachusetts

BULLY FOR BU! | March 12, 2010 After six years at the Phoenix , I recently got my first pre-emptive libel threat. It came, most unexpectedly, from an investigative reporter. And beyond the fact that this struck me as a blatant attempt at intimidation, it demonstrated how tricky journalism's new, collaboration-driven future could be.

STOP THE QUINN-SANITY! | March 03, 2010 The year is still young, but when the time comes to look back at 2010's media lowlights, the embarrassing demise of Sally Quinn's Washington Post column, "The Party," will almost certainly rank near the top of the list.

RIGHT CLICK | February 19, 2010 Back in February 2007, a few months after a political neophyte named Deval Patrick cruised to victory in the Massachusetts governor's race with help from a political blog named Blue Mass Group (BMG) — which whipped up pro-Patrick sentiment while aggressively rebutting the governor-to-be's critics — I sized up a recent conservative entry in the local blogosphere.

RANSOM NOTES | February 12, 2010 While reporting from Afghanistan two years ago, David Rohde became, for the second time in his career, an unwilling participant rather than an observer. On October 29, 1995, Rohde had been arrested by Bosnian Serbs. And then in November 2008, Rohde and two Afghan colleagues were en route to an interview with a Taliban commander when they were kidnapped.

POOR RECEPTION | February 08, 2010 The right loves to rant against the "liberal-media elite," but there's one key media sector where the conservative id reigns supreme: talk radio.